One thing I love about classic songcraft is the way a simple sentiment can seemingly always be made to fit the lyric setting. “Cakewalk,” a straightforward bit of Motown via Hall and Oates (and spiced up by a mechanical groove), is almost a pep talk: “There’s a reason your plans will fall into place…” they sing, the melody rapidly descending. “Don’t believe you would try to delete what you made with love.” The “with” in this last line gets a bit of epenthesis, sung “with-uh,” the vowel tacked on to give assurances that this is a sentiment—love persevere!—that fits because it can be made to fit.
Now, let’s not forget to ironize. The song is called “Cakewalk” because this whole thing is not a cakewalk. The brothers are wise enough to know that a simple sentiment sung simply finds deeper meaning in the complexity of the conditions out of which it emerges. These are not simple times. Maybe the boys coolly eating pizza in the desert—maybe there’s something about that image that brings it all together. Maybe?
Credits
Written, Recorded, Produced, and Performed by Baird and Gabe Acheson at South Hill Studios
Mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets
Mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Mastering
The South Hill Experiment EARTHBREAKS
Release date: Friday, March 21st 2025
Airplay date: Friday, January 17th 2025
- Rifting
- Maybe it Takes Time
- Passion Fades
- Silver Bullet
- Storm’s Eye
- Water Water
- The Drain
- Name a Star
- Open Ocean
- The Resonance
- Cakewalk Focus track
